How much i minimum wage

Viet Nam News HCM CITY — Farmers and workers in the informal sector are often reluctant to buy voluntary social insurance because they do not understand its benefits and lack knowledge about the programme, according to the Việt Nam Social Security agency. Voluntary social insurance regulations, which took effect in 2008, provide insurance for many low-income farmers and informal-sector workers. If participants pay social insurance premiums for at least 20 years, men over 60 and women over 55 will be entitled to pension payments after they retire. As of the end of last year, the country had 221,000 holders of voluntary social insurance cards. The Government targets having more participants, including 23 million people who work in agriculture and nearly 14 million labourers in the informal sector. Although the programme provides coverage to society’s most vulnerable groups, many intended beneficiaries are unable to participate or know little about the benefits. … [Read more...] about Informal workers wary of opt-in social insurance

Fed's Powell says U.S. outlook 'remarkably positive'The Saigon Times Daily U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell holds a news conference following a two-day Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) policy meeting in Washington, U.S., September 26, 2018 – PHOTO: REUTERS BOSTON (REUTERS) - U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell on Tuesday hailed a “remarkably positive outlook” for the U.S. economy that he feels is on the verge of a “historically rare” era of ultra-low unemployment and tame prices for the foreseeable future. It is a view, he said, based on how a changed economy is operating today, with businesses and households immunized by strong central bank policy from the inflationary psychology that caused unemployment, inflation and interest rates to swing wildly in the 1960s and 1970s. It is an outlook that includes an economic performance “unique in modern U.S. data,” with unemployment of below 4% expected for at least two … [Read more...] about Fed’s Powell says U.S. outlook ‘remarkably positive’

Viet Nam News Khánh Dương An unpalatable fact about working overtime in Việt Nam was revealed in a survey conducted by Institute for Workers and Trade Unions not long ago. Vietnamese textile labourers work on average 47 to 60 extra hours per month, far exceeding the 30 overtime hours regulated in law. Looking to the calendar year, the overtime shifts one has to do each year might reach up to 500, even 600 hours. But the wages revealed in the survey were a bigger disappointment. Average overtime pay for every labourer is estimated at not higher than VNĐ1.34 million (US$58) per month. This accounts for only 22.4 per cent of their total monthly income. According to the current Labour Code which came into force in 2012, the number of overtime hours must not exceed 50 per cent of normal working hours in a day. A work week is 48 hours, plus 200 hours of overtime a year, and 300 under special circumstances. The current payment for 200 hours overtime … [Read more...] about Overtime regulations need careful thought

At an office in Tokyo, a group of asylum seekers clutching resumes listened to three Japanese companies describe their openings -- rare opportunities in the country's often impenetrable job market. Japan accepts only a handful of refugees each year and they face hurdles to employment that can seem almost insurmountable, including language requirements, cultural barriers and discrimination Japan accepts only a handful of refugees each year and they face hurdles to employment that can seem almost insurmountable, including language requirements, cultural barriers and discrimination. But a handful of companies, driven partly by labour shortages, are now hiring refugees. Among them is Dairyu, a styrofoam manufacturer whose CEO Kenichi Osaka was hoping to find two new employees at a job fair held Monday by the Japan Association for Refugees, an NGO. "We need your work, and your novel ideas that Japanese people don't come up with," he told the asylum seekers in English. With its … [Read more...] about Facing labour shortfall, Japan firms turn to refugees

“Call me Ryn, I like that name!” a transgender woman told me with a hoarse voice and a shy smile, preferring the female name than her given one. Ryn works at a bar in Soi Nana, one of many glittering alleys along Sukhumvit which often sit on top of the must-visit places in Bangkok. At these red light districts, sex workers, male or female, provide all kinds of services, from a fun date to arousing massages. The alleys stand right next to a shopping center crowded with Muslims. A man having fun all night at Soi Cowboy can take a short walk to the mall and buy beautiful hijabs for his wife or lover back home. It’s hard to work out if prostitution is legal in Thailand. The country has at least three laws defining the acts of selling one’s body and enticing sexual desires for money as illegal. In 2003, the Ministry of Justice planned to legalize prostitution to collect taxes and try to control STDs, but eventually it could not rule over traditional ethical values. … [Read more...] about Lessons to be learned in Vietnam from Thailand’s sex industry